Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Engr Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal jointly chaired the one day consultative workshop on curriculum reforms today.
Minister of State said that we are developing minimum standards of curriculum as it is necessary to formulate a uniform minimum curriculum for the country, where our national heroes are given the same importance as our local heroes. It is important to set minimum standards of education and minimum standards of teaching because we don’t want any type of irregularity amongst the provinces as far as education is concerned. For that purpose we have created a platform Inter Provincial Education Ministers’ Conference where we constituted National Curriculum Council (NCC). We have taken every province on board except Sindh which is still an observer to the IPEMC but actively participate in the forum through its nominated members. We are also working on examination and testing system, Early Childhood Education Development and entry level curriculum, said the Minister.
A quality system of education teaches tolerance, patience, ability to understand other’s point of view, conceptual learning, proper religious teachings, leadership qualities, civic sense and character building. Education is not just the curriculum; it’s the teachers and learning environment that have an equal importance. We are thankful to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain for taking keen interest in education. We are also thankful to the Federal Minister Planning for approving Rs. 100 million for NCC. An advertisement has been given for the recruitment; all the recruitments would be based on merit system through NTS.
Talking on the occasion Federal Minister Planning and Reforms said that it’s not only the federal project but it’s a federation’s project as whole, because education and curriculum development is our collective responsibility as a nation. Curriculum is the soul of the education system so its importance can never be undermined, said the federal minister. New wars will not be fought with tanks and missiles they would be fought with education in classrooms so we should get ourselves prepared in this regard. It’s the time of global competition so we should prepare our children to compete for the international scenario rather than competing with each other within the country. With knowledge comes innovation and creativity which leads to further research. Weak bonding amongst our people, lack of leadership qualities, no personality development, no civic sense and no real knowledge of religion are products of ill education system. It’s high time that we should start improving ourselves rather pointing fingers at others.
Federal secretary Education Hasaan Iqbal also spoke on the occasion and said that effective teachers do not cover the curriculum but they uncover it. Other academicians, scholars, advisors, opinion makers, and educationists spoke about curriculum development and showed keen interest and commitment in helping the federal government in the development of national minimum curriculum.
Basic purpose of this workshop was to take all the stakeholders of education on board to develop a minimum national curriculum as soon as possible. Participants were called from different areas and cities of Pakistan to give their valuable suggestions and inputs for the curriculum development. Four focus groups were made which were supposed to present recommendations at the end of the day.
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